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Is it easy or common for people to switch from MD/PHD to the MD program if they discover that they really don't want to do research in the future anymore?
Md/phd
- Thread starter sunshine02
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That's a terrible thing to consider since:
1. The most important is you would have wasted a lot of people's time to choose a person for MD/PhD that doesn't want to do research.
2. Equally important is you would have stolen an MD/PhD position from others who lived and died to get an MD/PhD offer that actually want to be a physician scientist.
3. Wasted lots of the school's money to "wine and dine" you for an MD/PhD position (like use NIH's monies to try to recruit you by giving you multiple meals, a hotel, trip reimbursement, etc. for interviews).
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I am sure there are plenty more reasons why you shouldn't do this, but this is just a horrible thing to consider: if you are not sure about research, why are you applying for MD/PhD anyway?
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I'm not. I was just wondering if this is possible.
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Yes, it happens, and with more regularity than MD/PhD programs like to admit. The med schools don't tend to have an issue with the students just continuing with med school, and while the MD/PhD programs obviously aren't thrilled about it they don't have much choice in the matter.
The NIH has an expected rate for people dropping out of MD/PhD programs, which IIRC is about 10% (about right in my experience). Honestly, that's much better than the national PhD completion rate, which is about 50%
**** happens, and it's difficult to predict how your goals will change. Even if the OP is sure about research at this point, it's wise to consider the alternatives.
Many (perhaps even the majority) of MD/PhD grads don't end up as RO1-funded investigators. If your goals change early, what's the point in continuing with the PhD? My personal opinion is that if you know before the 3rd year of grad school that you don't want to continue research after med school, it's probably prudent to cut your losses and go back to med school. If it's much later, suck it up and finish the PhD.
